February 22, 2013

Interview with Sudeep Sen [by Catherine Woodard]

The birth of a book is a blessed day. The day I interviewed Sudeep Sen
in January at his apartment in New Delhi about editing The Harper Collins Book of English Poetry, his latest poetry
book Fractals: New & Selected Poems
| Translations 1978-2013 arrived in boxes from
Gallerie Publishers. Shelves and shelves of poetry books share top billing with
an eclectic collection of visual art, including Sen’s photographs. He took the
photo on the cover of the anthology. Behind his desk is a framed draft of a
poem by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath
Tagore, the prolific Indian writer and later-in-life visual artist.

Birthday cruise for Derek Walcott, 83

Sen, 48, introduced me to his extremely charming mother in the ground floor apartment so I saw Fractals join the shrine on a dining room side table of her son’s more than two dozen poetry books, translations and anthologies. Later in January, Sen was the contemporary poet honored to read at a Nobel Laureate conference in St. Lucia. Coincidentally, Tagore was awarded a literature Nobel exactly 100 years earlier. Derek Walcott, the 1992 literature winner, lead the Q&A after Sen’s reading. “The biggest gig in my life thus far – certainly the most precious, moving and meaningful,” Sen emailed me after.

CW: All 85 poets in the anthology were born after India became a republic in 1950. How does that influence their relationship to English as
a language?

SS: There’s a confidence in the language, an unabashedness. One
or two generations ago English was a post-colonial language. It’s no longer the
case. For me, English is an Indian language. It is one of our 26 official
languages.

CW: So it’s about owning the language not in reaction to a
colonial history of oppression?

SS: No, it’s more than that. English just happens to be one
of the tongues they are using very freely as an everyday thing. Take me for
instance, I have three mother tongues: English, Bengali and Hindi, that’s how I
grew up. It’s very unself-conscious. English is a language I learned from my
parents and grandparents who are Indians.

When I travel abroad, people say “oh you speak English very
well” and I say “and so do you.” The English language is interesting because
there are so many different Englishes. There is Caribbean English, Australian
English, American English, English English, Asian English, Indian English.

CW: What did selecting the poets teach you about those Englishes?

SS: That it is complex. Take David Dabydeen in the book,
whose work is known as part of Caribbean literature. He’s from Guyana and grew
up in the UK, an Indian diaspora poet who writes just fabulous English poetry
of the highest order. His ancestors were Indian laborers. He writes about
cooking dhal and roti and curry. Some of
his poems are very steeped in Western painting, including this fabulous love
poem called “Turner” I excerpt in the book.

The Indian diaspora is very complex too. The older diaspora
is five or six generations as opposed to Indians in America and the U.K. of
just a few generations. Africa, South Africa, Fiji and the Caribbean all have
large Indian populations. Those migrations happened as slave ships. They would
take an entire village, the priest, the barber, the teacher. Their descendants still sing
the songs my great-grandmother sung.

CW: What impact would you like the anthology to have?

SS: I’d like more of these poets to be read in India and
abroad. Literally very few are known beyond small poetry circles. There are so
many young poets writing and it’s so difficult for them to break into the scene.

CW: That said, does it surprise you then the anthology is
getting reviews from mainstream print, radio and television. And that a few
months out, it is slated for a reprint.

SS: It has just baffled me the impact, fabulous reviews in
places that don’t even touch poetry usually.

CW: Why?

SS: I think primarily because 90 percent of the work is unpublished
work, which is rare in anthologies. It’s new work that is difficult to access
all in one place.

CW: I couldn’t find an online source to purchase with
shipping outside of India for either book, including www.harpercollins.co.in. (Readers,
please comment below if you know where online.)

SS: U.S. and U.K. rights are still being negotiated for the
anthology. It
is however available via online portals.

CW: There is a lot of embrace of traditional form among the
poets. Why?

SS: I think this is more a generational thing. The younger
generation is excited about the language and so comfortable with it that they
are actually trying out hard forms like villanelles and sestinas. Many of them
are also bringing in classical Indian verse forms. Ghazel in English is a good
example. Contemporary writers embracing older forms but still making it
contemporary is bound to lead to good things.

If you are going to write free verse, you need to know what
classical verse is. You need to know what you’re breaking. You don’t have to
stick to any of the old rules as long as you know the rules. So much of the bad
name to modern poetry is because you can write a sentence chop it up into five
parts and arrange it in a column and call it a poem. That happens all around us.

CW: Do you see any trends of the poets who are not living in
India and writing from other places or is it simply a reflection of where they
happen to be?

SS: They bring in a certain injection of the local culture.
Indian poetry is being written by so many different kinds of Indians and that’s
certainly making it richer. Take the Americans. They are writing about very
American things that may or may not be understood here. However, many of them
are rediscovering Indian roots.

CW: Are readers in India more open to poetry because of the
many languages here with different rich poetic traditions?

SS: Yes, because poetry in other languages outside of
English has a long, long history. It is very much imbedded in our larger
cultural sphere and very much part of our upbringing. For example poetry is
integral to the music traditions in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, extremely advanced.

CW: And where is English poetry in the scheme of things?

SS: English poetry is in a smallish circle relative to the
bigness of India, a niche audience.

CW: But in a global context, isn’t India the second largest
publisher of English in the world?

Comments

Interview with Sudeep Sen [by Catherine Woodard]

The birth of a book is a blessed day. The day I interviewed Sudeep Sen
in January at his apartment in New Delhi about editing The Harper Collins Book of English Poetry, his latest poetry
book Fractals: New & Selected Poems
| Translations 1978-2013 arrived in boxes from
Gallerie Publishers. Shelves and shelves of poetry books share top billing with
an eclectic collection of visual art, including Sen’s photographs. He took the
photo on the cover of the anthology. Behind his desk is a framed draft of a
poem by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath
Tagore, the prolific Indian writer and later-in-life visual artist.

Birthday cruise for Derek Walcott, 83

Sen, 48, introduced me to his extremely charming mother in the ground floor apartment so I saw Fractals join the shrine on a dining room side table of her son’s more than two dozen poetry books, translations and anthologies. Later in January, Sen was the contemporary poet honored to read at a Nobel Laureate conference in St. Lucia. Coincidentally, Tagore was awarded a literature Nobel exactly 100 years earlier. Derek Walcott, the 1992 literature winner, lead the Q&A after Sen’s reading. “The biggest gig in my life thus far – certainly the most precious, moving and meaningful,” Sen emailed me after.

CW: All 85 poets in the anthology were born after India became a republic in 1950. How does that influence their relationship to English as
a language?

SS: There’s a confidence in the language, an unabashedness. One
or two generations ago English was a post-colonial language. It’s no longer the
case. For me, English is an Indian language. It is one of our 26 official
languages.

CW: So it’s about owning the language not in reaction to a
colonial history of oppression?

SS: No, it’s more than that. English just happens to be one
of the tongues they are using very freely as an everyday thing. Take me for
instance, I have three mother tongues: English, Bengali and Hindi, that’s how I
grew up. It’s very unself-conscious. English is a language I learned from my
parents and grandparents who are Indians.

When I travel abroad, people say “oh you speak English very
well” and I say “and so do you.” The English language is interesting because
there are so many different Englishes. There is Caribbean English, Australian
English, American English, English English, Asian English, Indian English.

CW: What did selecting the poets teach you about those Englishes?

SS: That it is complex. Take David Dabydeen in the book,
whose work is known as part of Caribbean literature. He’s from Guyana and grew
up in the UK, an Indian diaspora poet who writes just fabulous English poetry
of the highest order. His ancestors were Indian laborers. He writes about
cooking dhal and roti and curry. Some of
his poems are very steeped in Western painting, including this fabulous love
poem called “Turner” I excerpt in the book.

The Indian diaspora is very complex too. The older diaspora
is five or six generations as opposed to Indians in America and the U.K. of
just a few generations. Africa, South Africa, Fiji and the Caribbean all have
large Indian populations. Those migrations happened as slave ships. They would
take an entire village, the priest, the barber, the teacher. Their descendants still sing
the songs my great-grandmother sung.

CW: What impact would you like the anthology to have?

SS: I’d like more of these poets to be read in India and
abroad. Literally very few are known beyond small poetry circles. There are so
many young poets writing and it’s so difficult for them to break into the scene.

CW: That said, does it surprise you then the anthology is
getting reviews from mainstream print, radio and television. And that a few
months out, it is slated for a reprint.

SS: It has just baffled me the impact, fabulous reviews in
places that don’t even touch poetry usually.

CW: Why?

SS: I think primarily because 90 percent of the work is unpublished
work, which is rare in anthologies. It’s new work that is difficult to access
all in one place.

CW: I couldn’t find an online source to purchase with
shipping outside of India for either book, including www.harpercollins.co.in. (Readers,
please comment below if you know where online.)

SS: U.S. and U.K. rights are still being negotiated for the
anthology. It
is however available via online portals.

CW: There is a lot of embrace of traditional form among the
poets. Why?

SS: I think this is more a generational thing. The younger
generation is excited about the language and so comfortable with it that they
are actually trying out hard forms like villanelles and sestinas. Many of them
are also bringing in classical Indian verse forms. Ghazel in English is a good
example. Contemporary writers embracing older forms but still making it
contemporary is bound to lead to good things.

If you are going to write free verse, you need to know what
classical verse is. You need to know what you’re breaking. You don’t have to
stick to any of the old rules as long as you know the rules. So much of the bad
name to modern poetry is because you can write a sentence chop it up into five
parts and arrange it in a column and call it a poem. That happens all around us.

CW: Do you see any trends of the poets who are not living in
India and writing from other places or is it simply a reflection of where they
happen to be?

SS: They bring in a certain injection of the local culture.
Indian poetry is being written by so many different kinds of Indians and that’s
certainly making it richer. Take the Americans. They are writing about very
American things that may or may not be understood here. However, many of them
are rediscovering Indian roots.

CW: Are readers in India more open to poetry because of the
many languages here with different rich poetic traditions?

SS: Yes, because poetry in other languages outside of
English has a long, long history. It is very much imbedded in our larger
cultural sphere and very much part of our upbringing. For example poetry is
integral to the music traditions in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, extremely advanced.

CW: And where is English poetry in the scheme of things?

SS: English poetry is in a smallish circle relative to the
bigness of India, a niche audience.

CW: But in a global context, isn’t India the second largest
publisher of English in the world?